From Infinity To Beyond
by smaxsude
Summary: It was hard, waking up everyday knowing he wasn't in the world anymore. Sometimes when he closed his eyes, he could almost feel him still with him. Standing behind him with one hand on his shoulder and the other hand on his own hip. There were other times, he would feel his phone go off with his designated ring tone, but when he would look at his phone, nothing would be there.


It was hard, waking up everyday knowing he wasn't in the world anymore. Sometimes when he closed his eyes, he could almost feel him still with him. Standing behind him with one hand on his shoulder and the other hand on his own hip. There were other times, he would feel his phone go off with his designated ring tone, but when he would look at his phone, nothing would be there.

He knew he wasn't the only one hurting. There were so many other people who had knew him longer that had every right to feel just as bad as he felt. Heck they had every right to feel even worse. He hadn't seen any of them since the funeral. Some days he wanted to reach out to them. He even once thought about calling Happy, just to hear his voice because whenever he talked to Happy, he felt that everything was just like how they used to be. He never called Happy though, he never could work up the nerve to press the call button. He figured that if any of them wanted to talk, they would reach out when they were ready. That didn't make him feel less alone.

May was supportive and patient with him the first couple of weeks after the funeral. She didn't hover, let him have his space, and held him when he woke up crying in the middle of the night because the reoccurring dreams of him dying right before his eyes haunted him almost every night. He knew how she felt about him, but that never got in the way of her comforting him when he needed it most. She really was the best, he'd have to make it up to her soon. Her and Ned.

Ned did his best to be his supportive best friend. He tried to make things as normal as possible talking about school, new lego star wars sets that he recently got, and all the other things they used to do before the blip. He really appreciated Ned in those moments, especially when he was lost in his thoughts, which seemed to be like all the time. He couldn't help but look at Ned just now in the middle of Mr. Harrison's lesson and be grateful to have him as his best friend.

School was whole story in of its own. After the whole Thanos fiasco and everyone blipping back, no one was really sure were to go from, so they decided to just start everything from the beginning like nothing ever happened. Like nothing ever happened, ha! That was laughable. Once the last bell of the day wrung, he and Ned grabbed their stuff and began heading to the schools' front entrance. They walked the hall in silence, Ned tended to do that on days when he knew Peter was having a bad day. As they were walking, MJ began to walk with them silently as well. He looked over at her with a small smile, and she in return look at him with her signature smirk. He couldn't help but be grateful for her too. She didn't mock him as much as she used to, and whenever she called him a "loser" she did it almost with affection. He didn't' know when it happened but he was glad that they become friends, if he was being truthful to himself, he had a small crush on her, but he wouldn't say anything yet. Not until he knew for himself that she might feel the same way. For now though, he was glad that they were all friends.

He said goodbye to his friends and head for the subway. May would be home by now because she had night shifts on Wednesdays and had Thursdays off. He put his head phones in and turned his music up trying to tune out the world as best as he could. During this time he would close his eyes and try to focus on nothing but the hum of the train and the sound of his music. His mind was always racing these days, and sometimes there were times he had no thoughts at all, but during this time he mind always wondered to one person. He missed him so much. He began to feel his throat start to tighten, and water began to form in his eyes. The announcer called his stop and he collected his things and headed towards the doors. His and May's apartment was only three blocks away from the station so he made it back fairly quickly because it began to rain slightly. He didn't even register the black sedan sitting out in front of the curb because the sky's seemed to open up just as he was about to walk up the front steps. He put the key in the lock and opened the door, all he wanted to do right now was changed into some warm clothes and crawl into bed.

"Hey May, how was your day?" He said not even bothering to turn around, he was trying to take of his soaking shoes while hanging up his jacket.

"Peter?" Said a voice not belonging to May. He should have realized it sooner, but his senses have been off ever since everything.

"Miss Potts..I mean !" God, why was he such a bumbling idiot. Its not like its the first time they've spoken to each other, but its been the first time they've talked since…the funeral.

"Please Peter, how many times have I asked you, call me Pepper." She said with a strained smile. He couldn't help but really look at her. She looked the same but different at the same time. Her eyes seemed duller and she looked thinner too.

"Uhh Pepper, what are you doing here?" He asked her, feeling slightly uneasy. He hadn't had a chance to talk to her after the funeral, and he didn't really feel like it was his place to talk to her at all. She was Mr. Starks wife, the mother of his only child, his…everything.

"I actually wanted to come her and speak with you. I realized I haven't… I realized I haven't spoken to you since…" she spoke slightly fiddling with her hands.

"I'll just leave you too to talk for a moment." May said on the couch that her and Pepper were sitting on. He felt bad for not acknowledging her sooner. She grabbed her coat, gave his hand a soft squeeze, and left with the soft click of the door following behind her.

He looked at Pepper and he didn't know what to say, and by the look on her face, neither did she.

"I…I don't know what to say…" he said lamely to her, eyes cast down solemnly. She had a sad face as well.

"Why don't you come and sit down?" She beckoned to him slowly. He came over and sat gently on the couch beside her, cradling his hands in his lap and staring at them. She was looking at him, he knew that much. He didn't have the heart to look at her because if he did, he would lose it, and he knew that he had no right to lose it in front of her when she was the one that was supposed to be grieving.

She gave a soft sigh and began to speak. "He wouldn't want you to be sad Peter." He looked at her sharply when she said that and already began to feel the sharp sting in his eyes.

"He cared so much for you Peter. You know he wouldn't have done what he did, if he knew that there wasn't a life for us after Tony Stark." She took a small pause and looked away from him, a small smile creeping up on her face.

"He always seem to know everything, always planning for every possible outcome."

"Pepper, I… I don't know what to do. Everywhere I look reminds me of him. Everywhere I go brings back so many memories. After everything that happened to me after Uncle Ben, the whole Spiderman thing, and everything after that, it was just…_nice _to have someone there to know what I was going through. He pushed me to be better, he said…he wanted me to 'be better than him', and I really wanted to be but how could I?! He's Tony Stark, Iron Man, and he's…he's…and I know I don't have the right to feel this way because I was just his intern and you are his wife and… but to me he wasn't any of those things to me…to me he was…" He knew he was talking a mile a minute but everything started to fall out like word vomit.

"Peter! Have no right? You have just as much right as everyone!" She said giving him a confused look and the end of my emotional rant.

"Peter, you didn't see him when you were all…" Gone, she wanted to say gone, but he could understand why she wouldn't want to bring that up.

"He was a wreck. He blamed himself all the time. He felt he was responsible for everyone, but the one he blamed himself the hardest on was _you."_

She grabbed his hand softly when she said that and was looking at him softly. He couldn't help but look at her when she said that. His mind in complete shock. He obviously never got a chance to ask everyone what happened during the five years that everyone was gone. Everything was happening so fast and people really just wanted to move on with their lives. She continued to look at him and began to speak again.

"Even after Morgan was born, I could still see the hurt in his eyes because I knew the one person in the world he wanted her to meet was you… and Peter, he never thought of you as just an intern, hell, he never thought of you as his mentee to his mentor, to him, you were his kid. _His _kid. He loved you Peter…more than anything! You have to know that." She said this with stress and urgency.

At this point he was crying silently with tears streaming down my face. For her to say this to him was surreal. He couldn't help but stare at her.

"He really thought that about me?" He ask quietly and a bit dumbfounded.

"Of course he did Peter. He loved you so much that before everything happened he had you written in his will." Now that shocked him to the core.

"What do you mean I'm in his will?" He ask her with confusion in his eyes.

"He…well he never thought he would have kids, and he already thought of you as his kid so he…he wrote you into it. That's…That's actually why I am here. I wanted to talk to you about it." She started to pull some papers out of the medium size bag that was sitting at her feet.

"He…he left you as his heir Peter." She said with a small smile and handing the papers to him.

"He..he what? But what about Morgan? She's his only child, how can he..how can he do that to her?" He stared dumbly at the papers that now sit in his lap.

"Oh don't worry about that, Morgan is still in there, he had a contingency that if he were to ever have kids that they be entitled to what they deserved, so she isn't exactly going to be left with nothing, she still is his heir too, but he left half of everything to Morgan…and to you." She was looking at him now they way she used to look at Tony. The way he saw her look at Morgan at the funeral. She was looking at him like he was _her _kid too.

"Peter, I want you to know, you always have a place in our home because to Tony… and to _me_, you were our kid. You and May were our _family_. So please, don't…don't think you are alone in all of this because I love you as much as I love Morgan. Every time I look at you, I see him in you." She had tears in her eyes as she looked at him. He guessed he looked the same right about now. She put her arms out and pulled him into a hug. It felt nice, almost motherly. She was warm, and smelled like lavender.

They held each other for a few moments, both of them softly crying. When they parted, they both gave each other small smiles, and began to wipe their tears away.

"So, Peter, now that you know you officially part of the Stark family, would you want to come to the farm this weekend and…do some family stuff. Oh! And please bring May, she's as much part of the family as you are." The look in her eyes was almost pleading, and hopeful all at the same time as she stood from the couch to leave.

"Of course Mrs..Pepper, I'm sure May would love to go, and I…I really want to be apart of this family." He said with a voice that he never thought he was capable of, but gave her a smile none the less. They slowly walked to the door as he gave her his answer.

"Great! Well, I'll just be going now…I'll see you this weekend then Peter." She had already pulled her coat on and leaned in and gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek. As he opened the door for her, she gave a small wave and headed down the stairs.

He smiled to himself as he closed the door once she was out of eyesight. He was walking to his room when he realized just how emotional drained he was. After changing into his pajamas and crawling into bed, he couldn't help but feel for the first time since everything happened that the ache in his heart didn't hurt as much as it did before. For the first time in a long time, he knew that in time, everything was going to be okay.

Fin


End file.
